Can I Please Have a Hot Man?

Lunch ended in blood and a banquet. And disappointment for Maiko’s efforts to get Noriko to take action. Her stalemating only fueled further acts. Pushing the two to the front of the crowd on the walk back to the office. Trying to get Hiroyuki to start a conversation. Anything to move the ball. But it was a concrete cube, nothing was rolling.

By the time they reached the elevator, it looked like she had given up for the moment. There was no escaping in the end. Her friend was like time itself, eventually she would catch her. It was an eventuality, frighteningly so.

They luckily didn’t have to wait around long for the elevator. But when the doors opened half of it was being occupied by one of the janitor staff and their cart. They must have entered on the basement. They weren’t all going to fit.

Minor debates on who would go start to spin around the group, but Noriko took a step back. “Arata, you go on ahead. I’ll wait for the next.”

“Are you sure, Miss Shirane?”

“Of course! Go on.”

“Okay…” With some awkwardness he went and that started to settle matters. Higashiyama went with him, though he was still spinning his fake gun in his holster. They were Arata’s mentor. Maiko went along with some added encouragement, to which she grabbed Tomio and the elevator was set. And thus she was set up again by her friend.

Maiko waved cheekily to her as the door closed.

Hiroyuki stood next to her. The ding of the elevator fully leaving only echoed in the distant silence between them. A kilometer gulf between if it were a centimeter.

Awkward silence continued for them, unable to move things forward. Noriko gave desperate prayers to the Budda for luck while Hiroyuki caught himself in shyness. Which was the true side of him. It took all of the courage that Tomio could loan him just to make it over to Noriko only to trip and manage to save himself, but looked stupid in front of the woman of his crush.

But in the end, the spirit of Tomio gave him an encouraging ghostly thumbs up that actually worked on Hiroyuki’s malleable person and he spoke. “Shirane…are you—“

Noriko snapped over not really hearing his words, just his voice and started bowing. “I’m sorry!” She started bowing again.

More of what she intended to say came out, but Hiroyuki only heard the two words and was completely dead inside. Soul had vacated the body. A handsome corpse left behind. One that Noriko might have been admiring had she not been explaining why she was apologizing, now to herself.

At the end of her attempt to find the right words, she finally noticed the empty look in Hiroyuki’s eyes. She leaned down trying to check on him. With the light out of his eyes, his hotness value greatly diminished.

Apparently, attractiveness required life, sure that made sense.

But she started to shake him. “Hiroyuki? Are you feeling ill?” In her confusion, he finally snapped to and saw her looking over him. He started to open his mouth with the elevator chimed at them. “Oh, we can go up now.”

She stepped in waiting for Hiroyuki to join her. There was a long enough delay that she had to stop the doors. Leaning around, she saw him looking paralyzed. “Are you okay? We need to get back to work, but if you’re feeling sick I can let Nakadai know.”

“No, I’m coming!” It was a little slow, but he made it after another bump from the impatient elevator.

It closed and she glanced over at him. Her fumbling words still rattled around in her head. “Look, I’m sorry for cutting you off at lunch. You were trying to say something.”

“Oh that’s what you were saying?”

“Yeah, it was sorta embarrassing. I’m at fault, I was trying to escape.” Though it wasn’t even when she finished that Hiroyuki already had slid down into the corner with relief. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Better now.”

“What were you trying to say at lunch while I was being so rude?”

“No, I just had bad timing!”

She shook her head, but wasn’t going to debate it further with him. “I’m not going to stop you this time.” Panic and fear still jumped around inside her like a dog chasing a cat but she had to just face it. She couldn’t run away anymore. It was just wrong.

“Oh, right, I wanted to ask you what your answer was?”

“To what?”

“Tea?”

“Tea?”

“Huh?”

“I’m lost. What are we talking about?”

“Yesterday, when I asked you out for tea?”

She nodded and closed her eyes a little hearing Maiko laughing about how right she was. “I’m sorry I was sorta in shock. So I didn’t hear anything.”

“You didn’t?” There was almost a whimper in his voice which would have been really cute for Noriko if she didn’t feel guilty for having to make him repeat himself. But she shook her head to confirm it. He was starting to look dejected.

“But I did now!”

“Oh.” That was a very hollow reply that wished it had more in it, but already sucked dry.

Noriko clapped her hands together and bowed again trying to apologize for the misunderstanding. But it only delayed things. And the elevator seemed intent on making sure resolution finally happened. Six chapters was far too much to drag anything out.

Horiyuki did manage to recover and stand. He looked to have found his chance. “So what do you think?”

That finally cornered Noriko as she took a step back. The elevator didn’t provide a lot of space. She should have just done what Maiko said and turned him down immediately. But it was just like she knew what would happen. Seeing him in person just made it too hard. Bad memories just came flashing at her. She should have pushed past it, but the emotions, the scar wouldn’t.

‘It would only be tea. It doesn’t mean anything, right? No, I shouldn’t be leading him on. What do I do?’ Noriko was now the one nearly crawling on the ground looking sick. She battled with her emotions and reason, but it was a stalemate.

“Shirane?”

As she heard his voice breaking through the haze of emotions, she saw that he was far closer to her than she realized. She whacked her head against the wall. Clutching her head a little, she sort of forgot in the moment about everything. The momentary peace granted her a clear look at Hiroyuki. He looked so nervous, she never knew. He wasn’t the man she always saw sparkling and surrounded in dreamy haze. Just a man, a very hot one still not to forget, but a nervous man.

“Sure.”

“Shirane?”

The elevator finally opened. “I’ll go out with you for tea.” Hiroyuki didn’t even get a reply when there was a cascade of celebration in her left ear. She looked to see the door wide open with Maiko in front of half of the floor. “Did you tell everyone?!”

“We’re having red rice tonight!”

“I’m not your daughter!” She looked over trying to see how Hiroyuki was doing, but he was completely gone. There was a smile on his face, but the ghost had left the shell once more. “Hiroyuki?”